However, the ministry told FMT the Selangor government was “well represented” in meetings on dengue and that it had already engaged the participation of local community leaders in the programme.
Yesterday, Health Minister S Subramaniam said wolbachia-infected mosquitoes would soon be released in selected areas in Selangor to gauge if they were effective against dengue.
However, state health exco Daroyah Alwi told FMT afterwards that neither the ministry nor the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) had made a formal application to release the mosquitoes in Selangor.
FMT has learned that the mosquitoes would be released in AU2 in Ampang and Section 7 in Shah Alam.
“IMR did not even make a formal request to the local councils of the two areas, Ampang Municipal Council and Shah Alam City Council,” Daroyah said.
She said she would discuss the matter with the Selangor dengue committee before going to Menteri Besar Azmin Ali for a decision on the state’s next course of action.
The ministry told FMT it had conducted a public engagement exercise and a survey in which 95% of the respondents expressed approval of the programme.
It also clarified that the mosquitoes to be released were not genetically modified and were only infected with wolbachia, a natural bacterium present in 60% of all species of insects.
IMR last year introduced the use of wolbachia against dengue in collaboration with Britain’s Lancaster University.
Research has shown that when introduced into the Aedes aegypti mosquito, wolbachia can stop dengue as well as the chikungunya and zika viruses from growing in the mosquito.